Sunday, November 22, 2009

Of all the diet books i've read, this one is the most grounded, non-faddish book. it is full of citations (references to research) and matter-of-fact, down-to-earth, solid advice. Dr. Fuhrman researched more than 2,000 studies on diet before writing this book. He is a lifelong athlete and -hard to believe in America- has never had a sip of soda. He really practices whawt he preaches.

Frequently cited is the China study, research on folks in rural china who live very long, healthy lives.

It's becoming clearer all the time that a great deal of the health problems in the US are caused or at the very least aggravated by what we put in our mouths. The good news, then, is that we can reverse a lot of illnesses that modern medicine has "no cure" for by simply changing what we eat.

Of course the problem is, most of us are actually addicted to the very things that are killing us, so it's going to be hard to give those things up. Just like an alcholic, or a smoker, sometimes there's a food monkey on your back.

Dr Fuhrman, after much research, has come up with a simple but effective plan. It can be summed up in one sentence: eat plants, nuts, and beans, and nothing else (and your health will vastly improve, possibly even reversing illness altogether).

It ticked me off at first, but that was because i knew he was right and i didn't want to change my diet yet again. but i am mostly following his suggestions and while I have not seen a sudden reverse trend in my lab tests to the better, i look better- i get lots of compliments lately! and i've lost a few pounds. i've got to get chocolate out of my life, and stop soda altogether (I gave up diet soda 2 years ago, and have 1 or 2 regular sodas a week)- those are my last remaining vices. nothing redeeming in soda, and no one needs chocolate daily, even in small amounts. sigh.

The only shortcoming in this book, in my opinion, and it's a very small shortcoming, is that Dr. Fuhrman never ate junk food, so he has no idea how hard it is to change your evil ways and engrained habits. At first, I thought his book might be better received if he would be less hardcore about it, and let people slowly change their habits. But now I think that would have watered down his message, and that the only way for him to say what he needed to say was to be completely uncompromising.

In a nutshell, best book about diet out there. It's not so much abotu weight loss, but changing your habits for the purpose of improving your health. A lot of people say they want to lose weight "for health reasons" but really, they just want to lose weight without sounding vain. This book tells you how to eat for health reasons and oh by the way you'll probably lose weight.

there is also the book the lupus recovery diet, which suggests a low fat vegan (no animal products) diet. that author worked with the author of eat to live so there is some overlap.

Eat to live is slightly cheaper and has more scientific content. The lupus recovery diet has more patient testimony. Both have recipes.

About Me

"Lupus and Humor" is a blog by Carla Ulbrich (The Singing Patient). The purpose of the blog is to help others live healthier, happier lives by sharing what has helped/ not helped in Carla's 20+ years of having lupus (SLE).
Humor has been one of the things that has consistently been helpful, and is incorporated fairly regularly into the posts.